Anyone interested in finally getting around to writing their middle grade novel at last? I'll be one of the four featured speakers/workshop leaders at SCBWI's event in June. Check it out here!

I've spent a blissfully happy afternoon up in my garret, sorting through the treasure trove of old letters shared with me by a colleague. Reading long-ago letters between two sisters-- Lila and Thomasine --who were Mills College students back in 1889-1893. I still have two more boxes of letters to read! And I went online to the Ancestry and Familysearch genealogy websites and did some foraging... Turned up such a lot about their lives. What an amazing resource. I saw old b

Can anyone have too many books? Our circa 1867 house is FULL of nooks and crannies, and in just about every one we have built in bookshelves. My husband and I and our seven children have collected books like nobody's business, and even though half the kids have grown up and moved out, taking some of their favorite books with them, we still have enough to start our own library. A room without books feels unfinished to me. There are books in our kitchen (cookbooks, mostly, a